Serenity
by Amelia-Williams-Pond
Summary: A few oneshots centering around the title 'Serenity', given to me by JustReadingHerePeople for my story challenge title. 1- They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Never has there been a more accurate phrase. They're not related, and I might add a few, but here it is!
1. Chapter 1

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Never has there been a more accurate saying.

It was them- all of them. Kaldur, sitting next to Connor on the couch, who was next to Megan. Wally, laying across them. Artemis was sitting on the back of the couch, one leg between Kaldur and Connor, the other resting on Wally's legs. Robin sat on the floor in front of all of them, one elbow on Megan's knee, the other on Kaldur's.

Each of their faces perfectly displayed their character. Kaldur wore a calm, but amused smile, while Connor was caught beginning to glare at Wally, turning his half-smile into a sort of grimace. Megan was smiling brightly, a contrast to Artemis's smirk, having just kicked Wally, whose sly smirk was now half painful outburst. Robin merely smiled his signature smirk, so obviously happy to be with his family that it almost overrode his Batlike disposition. Almost.

The next pictures weren't quite so collected.

Wally, falling off the couch, while everyone else laughed. In the next shot, Artemis was trying to riffle the hair of both Connor and Kaldur, and Megan watched in amusement as Robin and Wally wrestled on the floor in full view of the camera.

Zatanna had appeared from somewhere in the next shot, and was sitting on the couch arm next to Megan. Robin had a hold on one of her ankles, while Wally was trying to drag him off-frame. It seemed that as he did so, however, he moved the couch, because the next picture showed only Artemis's legs, the rest of her obscured by the couch as she fell. Kaldur was leaning over the couch, trying to help her, though he was still smiling. Connor and Megan were considerably closer now, Connor having had to duck to avoid a kick to the face. Wally looked completely panicked, half-risen, while Zatanna, laughing, clutched the couch arm as Robin held her legs, his grin alight with mischief.

In another picture, Artemis was chasing Wally around the couch- they were behind it, now, and she had two fingers hooked on his collar. He was half in the process of being jerked back, one leg above the couch, the other visible on the side. Kaldur was holding up his hands in a shrug as if to say 'What can I do?', and next to him, Connor and Megan were kissing. Robin and Zee were on the ground laughing at Wally, and at themselves, each with mussed hair and clothes from their scuffle.

Black Canary just kept taking pictures. Her favorite was the last one- Artemis, Wally, Robin, and Zatanna were all on the floor, leaning against the couch, arms linked over shoulders and around waists, all smiling wide. Megan, who was sitting on her feet, was also smiling, as she held hands with Connor, who even appeared to have a small grin on his face. Kaldur was now sitting on the couch arm next to his original spot, his legs stretched out over where he had once been sitting, smiling, too, at his friends. All of them were red-faced, and a little bit breathless, and it was, in all honesty, a perfect picture. A mix of chaos and happiness that gave it the air of being _alive_, a real moment going on forever on a piece of paper.

That was the million-word picture. They each got a copy, and another copy was enlarged, framed, and hung on the wall in the Cave. Underneath it, a small plaque read simply, 'Serenity', based on a comment one of them had made about them being 'the picture of serenity'. Every time one of them saw it, they would smile, no matter how they felt beforehand. That picture stayed there long after everyone moved on, and there was one in the Watchtower, and the Hall of Justice, too. That picture awed the next generation of vigilantes- the next several generations. Because that was the picture that pointed out that Team means family, that everyone is equal, no matter what they can do, that friends are worth it. One picture, a million meanings, every one of them caught on paper.


	2. Chapter 2

_ Whelmed. Gotta stay whelmed. Stay traught, stay whelmed._ He nodded to himself in the darkness. He was chained to a weight, and they- Two-Face's goons- had dropped him in the ocean.

_You can get out of this, Grayson. You got this- just stay calm._

He struggled against the weights, trying to undo the cuffs. No dice. If he could just reach the mini oxygen cartridge on his belt- then he'd be able to breathe, at least. He pulled his knees in tight and rolled in the water, so that his hands were now chained in front of him. From there, he got the cartridge with his elbows and managed to bring it to his mouth. _Air! Sweet, glorious air! _

Now he set to work on freeing himself from the weights- the chains were thick, so his best bet was to pick the lock. But to do that… His only option was to grab the pick between his teeth, and that would mean no oxygen. _What choice do you have?_

He took another deep breath, gathering as much air into his lungs as he could, and maneuvered the cartridge so that it was between his shoulder and his neck- not very comfortable, but effective nonetheless. Then, he got the pick, and took another breath, holding the pick with his wrists. After several switch-offs, he ran out of air.

_ Crap. Okay, pick the lock faster. Come on, come on! There!_ He almost let out a whoop of joy, but managed to catch himself at the last second. As soon as he was free, he started swimming up. The water was really dark, now; he guessed he was at least a hundred feet down, judging by water pressure. It was hard to see… Maybe it was his vision that was going and not the water that was dark? At least his mask kept the water from his eyes.

He swam as fast as he could, but he felt himself growing weaker by the second. He needed air.

_Come on. Just a little longer. You can- you can… do… this…_

When he reached the top, he had been unconscious for almost a minuet, and would've certainly drowned if not for a certain Atlantean happening by. Kaldur propelled them through the water until they broke surface, and carried his friend to dry land.

Robin, meanwhile, was caught in a sort of tranquility, half awake, half not, and confused by the things around him. He had been floating in a world of blues- light and dark patterns that made everything seem so serene. Then, it was golds mixed with light blue and darker colors- brown and black and reddish orange and gray. It was the calmest he'd been since becoming Robin.

Kaldur revived him, of course, and he came to in a flash of reds, spots clouding his vision, coughing up saltwater.

_I'm alive!_ was his first thought, his second being, _that was a strange kind of serenity._ He thanked his friend and they returned to the Cave together, sopping wet, to be greeted by a worried Batman and the rest of the Team.

From then on, he made a habit of meditating regularly, chasing after that serenity.


End file.
